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Sales of children's book soar after right-winger's TV attack

Sales of a children's book have soared after a right-wing politician slammed it on television. More than 1,200 copies of Tous à poil! (Everbody naked!) were ordered in three days after Jean-François Copé of the mainstream right UMP said it sent shivers down his spine, the publishers announced on Wednesday.

Copé brandished the book, which features various characters - a businessman, a teacher, an old lady - stripping off and running to the beach, on a TV programme on Sunday, claiming that it was recommended for use in primary schools.

The group's leader, Béatrice Bourges, said that members were phoning and emailing libraries "all over the place" after Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti denounced pressure on libraries from "extremist movements".

Filippetti said that such groups "put pressure on the personnel, go through the shelves with a particular obsession for the children's section and demand the withdrawal of any books not corresponding to the moral they claim to incarnate".

The right-wing Le Figaro newspaper quoted several libraries as saying that the campaign has been small scale and found no cases of people going to libraries.